Thursday, October 31, 2013

GRADES: THE HALF TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE HALF TRUTH

No
doubt you, too, received the note from our Athletic Director explaining why Cal
football came in 123rd out of 123 schools in Graduation Success
Rates (GSR’s).Over 6 years only 44% of
our kids graduated.

If
you are a Cal lover like moi that
e-mail has to break your heart.

I
don’t know who wrote the letter the A.D. signed, but the Legalized-laced-letter
legitimizing laconic lexicological lamentations left much to be desired (in
other words like the previous sentence it obscured more than it cleared up).

Obfuscation
No. 1: “….two of our programs fell short
of our standards and expectations….” (Football at 44% and Basketball at
38%).

Two?What about women’s softball and women’s
basketball? Men's Soccer, down from 79% to 63% and Men’s Water Polo, down
from 69% to 58%? For Comparison of like programs UCLA Men’s Soccer was
82%--21% higher.UCLA Men’s Water Polo was
88%--30% higher.

Overall, the national average was 81%Cal graduated 78%.Can’t we be
at least average—I mean we are (were?) The Greatest University in the World,
no?

Though
women’s softball hit 57% this year (for a like comparison, UCLA had 100% during
the same period), last year the rolling average (of kids who came in over a 4
year period and were given 6 years to graduate.) was 45% (UCLA’s was 92% over
the same time frame).That means that of
all the women who entered Cal to play softball from 2002 to 2005 only 45% of
them graduated in six years.

We shouldn't blame the coaches for this, nor the kids. Standards are set from the top!

According
to the way the Feds grade it (FGR--I’ll explain why this is important later)
only 31% of the women softballers who entered Cal actually graduated from Cal
(over that 6 year period)!

Are
we to deduce that Cal’s approach to Title IX means gender equity translates to
equally low standards for men and women?

For
three years in a row, Women’s basketball scored a commendable 92% in the
GSR’s.Two years ago we dropped to 83%
and last year we came in below the national average at 75%. (Again, UCLA’s Women’s Basketball team came in
at 100% for the same period).

Couldn’t one conclude that such a downward spiral
in GSR’s “fell short of our standards and
expectations?”

If the A.D. gets to join these women on a trip to China (a
great educational experience BTW for the kids) can’t we at least require that
they will ALL graduate from Cal?We are
paying for their education after all, to say nothing of the trip.

Men’s
basketball is too difficult an issue to get into today but it needs to be
fixed.Fortunately, one can have
confidence that a good man like Mike Montgomery will right the ship—given the
proper resources and directions.

(Also,
none of this is on Sonny Dykes.By all
appearances he is trying to improve the academic climate in football).

Obfuscation
No 2:…since evidence surfaced of declining academic results for these two
teams, we have been far from complacent.We have already begun to see the results of recent corrective actions….

Some
of you may remember that on May 22nd 2012 a tall good lookin’ guy
wrote (see www.jeffwarren.com/):

“…the Knight Commission published the
rankings of 122 schools based on Graduation Success Rates (GSR’s).

“The greatest public University in the world
came in 112 out of 122 schools!”

So in the 18 months since our rankings were publicized (it
cracks me up that the media has now decided to report on being 123rd—being 112th
out of 123 wasn’t noteworthy—but being last is.I love it—but I digress)—we didn’t improve, we dropped 11 spots to dead
last.

Anyway,“We
have already begun to see the results of recent corrective actions….”

How
does one not get the irony or simple foolishness of that claim.This
is Alice in Wonderland-speak.

Obfuscation
No 3:“It is important to understand that the recent GSR figures do not
suggest that our student-athletes are failing in their class work; rather they
are often choosing to pursue other interests, such as a professional athletic
career, before meeting their academic requirements to graduate.”

On the face of it this is quasi-accurate.Only one problem:If the kid is both academically and
athletically eligible when he or she leaves, the kid is removed from the
calculus.The GSR specifically does NOT
count a child who goes to the pros against a school’s graduation rate (FGR
does, but more on that below).Here is
the NCAA’s specific language:

In
addition, the GSR will subtract
students from the entering cohort who are considered allowable exclusions
(i.e., those who either die or become permanently disabled, those who leave the
school to join the armed forces, foreign services or attend a church mission), as well as those who would have been
academically eligible to compete had they returned to the institution.

If
you don’t believe this is accurate call Maria DeJulio, NCAA Research
Contractor, at 913-397-7668, yourself.I did.The words are from the NCAA
Website and you can look it up.

This is huge folks.

Remember,
I mentioned the Feds earlier and their FGR (Federal Graduation Rate).It simply asks whether the student-athletes
enrolled at the school graduate within six years. A student-athlete who does
not receive a diploma at that institution for whatever reasons, including
transferring to another school, will be counted against the institution’s FGR.

So
an athlete who goes to the pros—as long as he’s academically eligible when he
left is “allowable exclusion”, and is not counted against the GSR (as suggested
in the A.D.’s letter).He is counted against the FGR.For the record Cal’s Football FGR for the
past two reporting periods was 47% and this past year fell to 39%.

Obfuscation
No 4:“The latest GSR data is based on freshmen who entered school between
2003-06 (this is accurate).Given this lag in reporting, we were able to
identify factors contributing to the decline in academic performance well
before the data was released.”

Again, yes and no.On
a regular basis, the schools are provided with APR (Academic performance
ratings) which tell each school whether kids are on track to graduate or
not.So yes, there is lag time, but
no—one doesn’t have to wait for the GSR reports to come out.They know each year how each team is doing—so
steps could have been taken to improve academics across the board, starting on
day one in 2004 when Sandy was hired by former Chancellor Birgeneau, had he put
a focus on it.

(I
won’t go into APR because it is just to many numbers, but you can Google it and
see the numbers by team.The latest
report (on a team by team basis) is dated 6/9/13, so I’m not sure why anyone
mentions a “lag” in knowing whether any of our teams were academically in
trouble).

Speaking
of the former Chancellor, this is on him.The buck stops there.He should
have directed his AD to direct the head coach to direct his assistant coaches
to direct their entire staff that academic performance is paramount—and
anything short of excellence is unacceptable.

Obfuscation
No 5:By no means should the attention on these two sports detract from the
great work by so many of our student-athletes.We should be proud that four of our teams—women’s lacrosse, women’s
tennis, volleyball and women’s water polo had perfect 100 per cent graduation
rates, that 16 of 23 measured sports had a GSR of at least 85 percent and that
a record nine programs were over 90 percent.

This
is good news, but let’s compare:

Stanford
State had 20 teams at a perfect 100%.26
teams over 90%, and 2 at 83%).Not fair,
you say:How about the other major,
oversized public University, Michigan.Michigan had ten(twice as many
as Cal) at a perfect 100% , 19 over 85%,and 17 over 90%.

So
we are not only NOT excelling, overall at 78% we are below the national average
of 81% for all sports.

Remember,
too, that the former Cal footballers who were in the athletic department and
lobbying for all around excellence have all been jettisoned—so there is no one
to stick up for us.

Cal
is destined to be the finest University in the world.But on the academic side—in regard to
athletics—there is one huge obstacle.This
is a management question—a question of focus and commitment.A question of priorities.

Loyal Cal
alumni (and parents of future athletes) can only hope the new Chancellor,
Nicholas Dirks, changes the culture, sooner than later.

`We
all want the same thing.First we want
to be involved in a program which will help young kids succeed in life and
produce good citizens.Secondly, we want
to win.

Here are some
schools that are doing that.Why can't we
follow their example?

P.S.This report should drive you all to drink.Bruce and Doris stopped by for some Cab
yesterday.Follow their lead if you get
up this way.Happy Halloween.

P.P. S.S.Full disclosure:I’m not a professional.This is a mailing to my friends.I’ve taken these numbers from web pages on
the internet.If a few numbers or years
are off—shoot me—the trend is there and should be obvious for all to see.

If you are so inclined, please let
the Chancellor and A.D. know your thoughts.

About Me

I write a Weekly Column for the St. Helena Star and have a Weekly Radio Show on KVON 1440am (KVON.com) on Wednesday's at 5pm. My Columns are about daily small town life in rural St. Helena. I'm old school and often write about the "old Days." I'm a Capitalist an believe in individual liberty and the rugged individualist. I also do a weekly blog on my trips to the Cal Bears Football games--but you gotta luv the Bears to like it. Having no marketable skills I sell dirt (vineyards wineries, ranches and estates), having formerly been a Creative Director and Copy Writer in New York and S.F.